Seeking a review of the Supreme Court’s earlier order of August 28, 2018, wherein the Supreme Court upheld the April 17, 2018 judgment of the Sindh High Court, in the matter of regulatory merger of Defunct KASB Bank into BankIslami Pakistan Limited. The Supreme Court of Pakistan has dismissed two Civil Review Petitions filed by Mr. Nasir Ali Shah Bukhari and Ms. Ghazala Monem.

With the approval of Ministry of Finance, Government of Pakistan the defunct KASB Bank was amalgamated with BankIslami by the State Bank of Pakistan on May 7, 2015.This merger was challenged by the sponsors and certain shareholders of the nonoperational KASB Bank through Constitutional Petitions, filed in the Sindh High Court at Karachi. These Constitutional Petitions were disposed of by the court on 17th April, 2018, wherein the court rejected the request for setting aside the regulatory merger of defunct bank into BankIslami. However, the Sindh High Court issued directions whereby the valuation of defunct KASB Bank to be looked into again by the State Bank of Pakistan and if any material deviation is found, the shareholders of the defunct Bank would be compensated without any cost and liability to BankIslami.

Further to these directives, the SBP completed the valuation process and subsequently issued an order dated June 28, 2018, disposing of the objections filed by the members of the defunct KASB Bank, with the observation that the objecting members/shareholders had not raised any substantial ground for increase in valuation justifying payment of any compensation to the members/shareholders of the Bank. This order of the SBP has also been referred in the Order dated 28th August, 2018 of the Supreme Court, in light of the Civil Petitions.

It is pertinent to mention here that certain other shareholders of the defunct KASB Bank had also filed Writ Petitions in the Lahore High Court, which have also been dismissed by the High Court in the month of November, 2018.